A Twist in Shakespeare
by neontreesanimal
Summary: Hi, this was an assignment for school, it's alternative ending,very alternative, no one dies. Any way, here it is enjoy!


**Juliet's POV**

I'm lying in a fetal position on top of my bed, by now I think tear stains would have been embedded into my cheeks. I'm cold, freezing, but I ignore it. My beloved cousin is dead and killed by Romeo! How could he do that to me? How could a person truly in love with someone consciously do something that will hurt them? But that must be the answer, there is no way that he could share the same love for me as I for him.

I hear a sound coming from my balcony, a scuffling. I don't respond, don't move. I only make my thoughts resolute; no matter what he says, no matter what he does I will not cave.

He must think I am asleep because he lays down on the bed behind me and wraps his arms around me protectively. I let him stay for a second, longing to turn around and melt into him, before shrugging him off.

"How could you do this to me? How could you...just, how?" It came out as barely a whisper.

"I know...I know but, I love you Juliet. Isn't our love strong enough to overcome this?" He said this as moving closer to me. I was on the edge and had nowhere to go. I slowly got up and turned to see blue eyes conveying love and hope. I almost crumbled there but I remained solid, his love isn't real, it isn't strong, that is if it even exists.

"You betrayed me, you broke my trust. If you truly love me you wouldn't have done what you did." He got up out of the bed a placed his hands on my shoulders.

"Look at me," I was looking down but I didn't move my head, instead he moved his so that our eyes met. "Juliet, I love you, I love you with all my heart, I know that I've broken your trust, and I will do everything in my power to regain it. But you've got to understand, Tybalt killed Mercutio and I had to avenge him."  
I was shocked. "What do you mean you had to avenge him? Are you saying that my trust and Tybalt's life were not good enough reasons to stop you from murdering my cousin?"

"Stop yelling at me! Of course your trust is more than important enough but if I didn't Mercutio's honor would have been tarnished!" I didn't even realize that I was yelling until he pointed it out.

"And what about what about your honor! What is that looking like after committing murder? I'm not sure if I can wake up next to someone every morning knowing that they have killed my brother."

"What are you trying to say?" His voice became really quiet.

"What do you think I'm saying Romeo?"

"I don't think I want to hear it." I just stood there looking at him hugging myself. It can't go on like this. "I need to leave to Mantua tonight, but are you telling me that I may as well never come back?"

"I..." I couldn't form the words. Just then there was a knock at the door.  
Romeo walks up to me and places a soft kiss on my forehead. He whispers, "Think about what you said, if you really mean it don't contact me, I'll get the picture, but if you don't write a letter, I'll come back when it's time." As he rushed out the balcony, he didn't want to look at me, I can tell. That just got me angry, how could he say something like that and not even look at me?

I opened my door to reveal my mother. "There has been an arrangement." She walked right past me. Does she not even realize that there is a death in the family? "You are promised to Paris. You are to be married on Thursday." I'm definite now, I know that whatever was between me and Romeo is finished, over, period. I need this marriage and I need it now.

"What about tommorrow? Can the wedding be tommorrow? With everything that has been going on I just need a distraction."

"Tommorrow it is then." She left the room.

**1 Month Later**

**Nurse POV**

concerned to say the least, ever since she married Paris she has been miserable. She rarely speaks, she is never excited or happy. Paris allowed me to go with Juliet to make her more comfortable at his estate, just like Capulet had allowed her mother. At the moment Juliet reminds me of Lady Capulet, I remember her before her marriage, bubbly and full of life, but after she was reduced to stone, hard and emotionless. Something needs to happen to stop this from continuing further.

As I take my daily walk with her around the estate grounds I ask her about Romeo, she was even happier than usual when she was around him. "Juliet, what happened to Romeo?" She froze momentarily but kept walking on.

"He was banished." She said as if it had no effect on her but I could see it does.

"Will he come back for you?"

"Not unless I ask him to."

"Why don't you? Juliet, you're miserable, you becoming emotionless, you love him,whether you want to admit it or not."

"I don't, I chose Paris. Paris didn't murder my cousin."

"Well you don't harbour any romantics for him."

"Nevertheless," Juliet is starting to doubt herself.

"Juliet, I will write to Mantua, he can come back for you."

"He doesn't want to, don't you see that? He never really loved me. He doesn't care for me at all."

"Oh Juliet, I have never met a young man so in love and you must be blind not to see it."

"Nurse, why would he do that then? Why would he kill my cousin if he knew that it would cause me pain?"

"He was blinded by anger."

"I can not trust him anymore."

I stopped walking and held Juliet back. "Stop making excuses. You love him and he loves you, you both need to stop waisting time."

"Nurse, I don't believe that, just please, don't write a letter telling him that I want him to come back."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

There are just sometimes in life when you've got to do what you've got to do and this is one of those times. I will write to Mantua and send for Romeo but I will ask for him on my behalf, not Juliet's, she needs him to make her happy again, no matter if she realizes or not.

I sat down at my wooden desk and began writing, five minutes later I put my quill down and re-read what I had written:

_Dearest Romeo,_

_Juliet, I fear, has become mentally unwell, she grows unhappier by the day. I fear it may be too late but will you please come back to Verona to help her. Every afternoon at one we take a walk around the grounds, each time we stop at a bench under the ancient willow tree on the east quadrant. On next Tuesday afternoon I will make up an excuse to stay in the buildings and leave her to walk alone._  
_Please, you are my last hope,_

_Nurse_

I seal the letter in an envelope and hand it over to the messenger.  
RomeoI received a letter a few days ago from Juliet's nurse. In which she told of her concerns for Juliet's health and how I must do something to help. I don't care if she doesn't want me, I don't care if she is still married to Paris, she was married to me first, and our love in just the moment when our souls were bound was of more love than what Juliet and Paris will ever share until they die.

I am worried for seeing Juliet again and how she will react, it sounded as if she had no idea of nurse's plea. She probably never wants to see me again but she still needs me.

It is Tuesday afternoon and I have just spotted her sat beneath the tree. Her hair falling down her back, in beautiful curls. She was a picture of pure elegance, just as before, but I could see the change in her eyes, they were dull and boring, there is no sparkle.

I slowly make my way out of the bushes in front of me and reach out and touch her shoulder.

"Juliet..."

"What are you doing here? I didn't send a letter. I don't love you." Ouch.

"Juliet..."

"It was nurse wasn't it? I can't believe she still sent the letter after I asked her too."

"She is concerned for you, I'm concerned for you. I can see it...what this place is doing to you, it is slowly sucking the life out of you. Run away with me, to Mantua. We can spend the rest of our lives together, I bought an estate, it's beautiful, you're beautiful. Just come with me, please?"

"But why would I come?"

"Because I love you and you love me."

"Romeo, I don't love you anymore, I love Paris now." That felt like the biggest punch in the gut but I know it's not the truth.

I sat down next to her on the bench and gently brought her face to look at mine. "I love you." And then I smashed our lips together, I tried to convey everything in it, all the pent up emotions from the last month. All of my love for her and hope for our future. I slowly pulled away but kept our foreheads together.

"Oh Romeo," she said before hugging me with a vice-grip but I didn't mind, I just held her and buried my face in her curls, breathing the smells in, glad to have her back. "I love you too."

We pulled away after a while minutes and she said, "Let's run away together."  
I couldn't help the massive grin forming on my face. I laughed and she did to. That sparkle in her eye is back where it belongs.


End file.
